Day 18: Touphema to Longleng

Our day today started with a visit to the Touphema Museum, the custodians being the local Angami community. After a visit to an Angami Village, we started our drive towards Mon, the district in Nagaland, that shares a border with Myanmar.

On the way we were surprised to find a Gandhi Ashram in the small Chuchuyimlang village of Mokokchung District, run by Padma Shri Natwar Thakkar. Mr. Natwar was away in Mumbai, but we were hosted to tea by his wife, who is a Naga lady.

We visited the ashram computer school and drove on towards Mon. The road ended in a mountainous dirt track. We asked for directions and were asked to follow a private mini bus that took us some distance. Soon the passengers pointed out a mountain path and said we had to go ahead alone.

In total darkness we drove till we came to a village whose name we did not know. We stopped a person on the road and asked him the directions to Mon. He looked surprised and said it was not possible to drive to Mon through the jungles as it was infiltrated with militant camps and there were no roads but only dirt tracks with mountain streams without bridges. He took us home and we were surprised that he was the son of the Angh or Chief of the village we learnt was called Longleng! He introduced us to his mother and father and shared the local Angami meal they had with us and took us to a lodge with basic facilities and asked us to spend the night there. It was a very adventurous day for us!

The Tuophema Museum is a well kept museum, the highlight was a set of chairs and tables made from elephant bones. We then visited an Angami Village and say a full Angami tribal home that is totally built of wood with no metal, even the hinges of the doors, latches and locks were made of wood. We also saw a tree that is the gateway to an Angami Village, the doorway being through the tree trunk! There was a village council hall with a log drum.